HEART EVENT HOPES TO SAVE LIVES

After losing their son, couple began group to offer free heart screenings for young people

Although Hector Paredes has worked for the California Highway Patrol for three decades, the only time he ever used his cardiopulmonary resuscitation training was on July 23, 2009 — the day he came home for lunch and found his son, Eric, collapsed on the floor.

Paredes didn’t know it then, but no amount of CPR could have saved his 15-year-old son.

Eric, described by his father as a talented athlete, had suffered a failure of his heart’s electrical system known as sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).

“It’s something you can’t describe, you can’t define and you would never wish on anyone, not even your worst enemy,” Hector said of losing a child. “It’s a pain that never goes away,”

After his death, Hector and Eric’s mother, Rhina, started the Eric Paredes Save a Life Foundation in his honor to promote preventive screening and educate parents about sudden cardiac arrest.

SCA is not a heart attack. It occurs when the electrical system in the heart stops working, as opposed to when a blockage disrupts blood flow.

The foundation hosts free cardiac screenings, including the one Feb. 10 at Torrey Pines High School.

Thousands of youngsters die every year from sudden cardiac arrest, with about a half-dozen deaths in San Diego County occurring every year, Hector said.

Many show no warning signs and have no family history of heart defects. Instead, the risk for sudden cardiac arrest can be identified with a noninvasive test called an electrocardiogram, or EKG.

An EKG tests the heart’s electrical system and can alert parents to warning signs.

More than 1,000 boys and girls, most of them teens, were given EKGs at the Feb. 10 event. About 20 showed abnormal heart readings and received a secondary echocardiogram — an ultrasound for the heart. Three teens were found to be at risk for SCA.

“Get young people screened, if not with us, with your doctor — insist on it,” Hector said. “Had I known there was a test that could have prevented my son’s death … I would have paid any price.”

Hector said about 1 percent of kids screened will prove to be at risk for sudden cardiac arrest.

Devin Lawson, 15, was part of that 1 percent.

Lawson’s parents began hearing about the cardiac screenings Eric Paredes’ parents were championing. When they missed a free clinic, they decided to talk to their doctor about getting Devin, an athlete who played soccer and baseball, screened.

Cardiologists found a hole in Devin’s heart, and several months later he underwent open-heart surgery.

“We were shocked and so very thankful that we did this,” said Erin Lawson, Devin’s mother. “You have to get it done.”

Devin is now healthy and volunteers with the foundation.

“This test saved my life,” he said. “It feels good, because every time we do one of these, we usually find one or two people who do need fixing.”

John Rogers, a Scripps Clinic cardiologist and medical director of the Save a Life Foundation, said events such as the one last weekend increase awareness and encourage parents to get their children screened.

Even though few will show an abnormal reading, Rogers said no family wants to be in the 1 percent.